Last night, the House passed legislation aimed at preventing illegal government spying. Attached as an amendment [PDF] to the intelligence budget authorization bill, the legislation reaffirms that the NSA's domestic surveillance program must comply with Congress' laws.

Meanwhile, the House did not pass a Bush Administration proposal that would radically expand the government's ability to spy without warrants while also threatening to let telecom providers off the hook for assisting in the illegal NSA program.

Aggressive Congressional action to stop the illegal spying is long overdue, and this is an important first step in the right direction. Your letters and phone calls to Congress have been invaluable in getting this far, and we need your help to make yesterday's victory stick.

While other states are courageously standing up to Congress' misguided national ID mandate, California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is giving his constituents a rather indifferent message.

In response to a constituent's letter (sent through our Action Center) urging California to reject implementation of the REAL ID Act, the Governor's office simply replied: "The issue you have written about is federal in nature and not under state jurisdiction. We suggest that you contact your United States Senator?."

REAL ID is a federal mandate, but states and ultimately each state's residents bear the burden of putting this privacy-invasive system into place, including its more than 23 billion dollar price tag. REAL ID forces states to standardize drivers licenses and create massive, interlinked databases of your personal information.

The Bush Administration is pushing legislation that could let telecommunications providers off the hook for illegally assisting the NSA's domestic spying program, and one of your Senators may be on the key committee that can stop it. Use our Action Center to defend your rights.

In January 2006, EFF filed suit against telco giant AT&T for violating its customers' privacy and helping the NSA spy on millions of Americans' telephone and Internet communications. Congress is now considering a bill proposed by the Administration that could threaten cases like EFF's. That proposal appears intended to not only gut current privacy safeguards but also give blanket immunity to anyone who collaborated with the government's spying.